ReTrio at The Felsto Arms

... voice was rough from the previous night.  I took a blogateer's advice drinking lots of water and I got a small bottle of glycerine lemon and honey mixture which definitely helped.  The gig starts at 4pm and I was a bit late, only getting away just before 2pm.  But I had a quick run over to Felixstowe arriving at the pub at 2:30pm to find Chris and Ian just completing unload.  They gave me a hand in with my gear and I explained I wasn't being rude,  but I wasn't going to speak much to conserve the voice.  Set up was fine and I enjoyed a lager which took the throat soreness away. 

We were already changed into jeans and white tees so it only took the addition of a waistcoat and we were ready. There weren't many in though.  We span it out a few minutes before taking to the instruments and opening up with the usual 3 songs.  With only about 20 people in it sounded loud and we were asked to turn it down,  which I did.  But the drums were still very loud.   Ian takes the view that the band is there to be heard rather than as background muzak for them who liked to chat - could be a problem there!

Struggled on through the usual stuff which the voice was holding up enough to do - this trick was to avoid the big Elvis ballads.  Early on we did "Albatross" - a couple of chaps liked the instrumentals but couldn't stay for "Apache" and that was the trend really.  A few people would arrive,  a few people would leave but there would never be more than 25 in the audience.  As the second set got underway, we did do a request for "Penny Arcade" for a couple of Lancashire lasses that inhabit the bar.  Actually,  it went well.  I had asked Ian to have a listen before the gig thinking it might come up,  and he clearly had.  I sang it well considering and the ladies were pleased.  We finished the 2nd set on "Hot Love" with a few ladies dancing. 

In the break I swigged some more medication and judged I'd be OK to finish the night.  While we were off,  Ian had had a request for "Let There Be Drums".  I said I was sure we could busk a version so he went out and had a listen on the phone.  We opened set 3 with it!  He is a good drummer and got going well with it.  I had briefed Chris to play along with me in the key of E - I would improvise something within E A B.  After Ian had done a minute or so bash I counted us in to the main riff.  It was fine!  Chris just played a simple bass line and I did the riff.  I had a slight concern this might not work as we got to the rising in semi - tones section,  but it was fine.  Sufficiently so we went round again.  We got a good round of applause at the end.  We got back underway with the usual set and that kept us busy 'til about 15 minutes from the end.  All of us were surprised how long there was to go - we must have played the previous 25 minutes very efficiently!  (Actually there were no breaks)   I called for "Another Brick in the Wall".  We did a passable version of it.  Its not demanding vocally - I just wish the other two would join in on the 'we don't need no education..' verses.  I was happy with the solo improvising several bars reminiscent of Dave Gilmore's style, but I wasn't happy with the sound on the clean setting.  I knew sustain wouldn't work either,  but after the event I think the weakness of the sound is down to the pick up selection between bass and middle.  You need this for the main song sound but I have since resolved to try switching the guitar to the bass pick up for the solo to give it more depth.  Next I did the band outro version of "Mystery to Hound Dog".  This went very well.  It is rhythmically strong and we had some dancers up.  Ideal set up for the big finish with "Johnny B Goode".  Even though the voice was shot I could just about manage it and we finished the night in good order.  It was just after 7pm, no call or need for an encore.  We set about pack up quietly and were loaded for the off at about 7:45,  Chris had a word with Robbie the landlord who seemed OK despite the poor turn out. 

I was home by 8:30  knackered but pleased it was over.   Reflecting on things:  I'm not happy and I don't think the others are too.  That whole business with Paul bred some lack of trust between us.  There is clearly still a a head of steam to get another singer in.  I know it makes sense,  particularly after this weekend where it shows how dependent the band is on me being in perfect health every night. Chris the drum used to sing up to 5 numbers and that was a useful foil along with a few instrumentals.  However,  trio gig money split between 4 won't work for every person.  My view of keeping the trio for some gigs and augmenting with a singer for the better paid ones hasn't gained much traction.

In the week we took a break from practice.  Ian is well connected in the music world and had suggested we try a male singer contact.  But I suspect he wasn't available because that was dropped and then he came up with a female who can sing and play keyboards. This is more in line with my thinking so I said I'd be up for trying her out the week after.  The good news is the voice returned mid week,  so I hope I'll have the stamina for the Cromer gig on Saturday.

ReTrio at Seadell Club Hemsby

After the traumas of the previous week and a rather boozy second half of the week at the Beer Festival,  I had developed a slight sore throat. Ominously,  we had decided not to get a dep singer in - we were going to play the weekend as a trio.  Moreover, I was out of practice on my own vocals due to the distraction of sorting out and fitting in the singer who had now left the band.  But it 'was what it was' and I geared up manfully to do the gig to the best of my ability.  I rewrote the set lists taking the liberty of bringing in "Flingel Bunt" to start set 3 - to get another instrumental into the show.

Come the day Chris propped round in the morning to drop a bass cab off for me to take.  He would be taking Ian but he said there wasn't much room for lights.  It was a warm sunny day as we set off at 5pm for the run to the coast.  Roadworks south of Norwich slowed us down but we arrived in Hemsby just before 6:30pm.  We parked up near the fire exit and enjoyed a slow load into the club.  A good sized stage faced into a big and wide,  soft furnished, concert room with a dance floor off to my left.  Chris soon found there were no performance lights and regretted his decision to leave his at home.  He settled for the white spots above the band.   We worked though set up slowly.  The Bose PA only just fitted in by pushing the false roof panels in a couple of inches!  I looked round and Chris had set the Bose up in a corner on his side where the lines of sound would be obscured. Too late to change but I suggested next time we put it between the bass cab and the drums.   There was a moment of fear when the mixer powered up.  Sometimes with low voltages you get an uncertain outcome and this was the case here - it didn't boot up right first time.  Fortunately when I rebooted we were OK second time around - phwew! The place was fairly empty so we did an instrumental sound check with "Flingel Bunt".  Ian wasn't that familiar with it so it was a good job we tried it out.  Then we did "Smiling".  I was pleased with the very good on-stage sound - on the dry side and no nasty resonances.   I had run the PA up quite loud to try and fill the room and a couple out front (unprompted) said  'lovely sound!'  I backed it off a tad and we took a beer break. It seemed none of us wanted to discuss the singer experience so we settled into mild banter to while away 40 minutes to show time at 9pm.  About 8:45 pm we got changed into our smart black n white in the storeroom behind the bar - nice and warm!

Set Up - you can clearly see the guitarists foot pedal array,  for once plenty of room!

We opened with our usual suspects of "FBI - Heartbeat - Smiling"  garnering some polite applause from the 20 or so in for the start of the night.  As we continued with familiar rock n roll numbers I could see the hall filling up and we did get one couple on the dance floor.  Chris sang his "Act Naturally" and got an OK response,  but I judged that this crowd weren't massive country fans so we sidelined a possible airing for "Ring of Fire".   Next we wigged up for the Beatles and then played the Searchers Medley.  I was happy with the PA sound and was just using the harmoniser to add a high line.  Probably 'cos I was out of practice playing as a trio,  I was having a bit of trouble coordinating all the guitar and PA effects changes with my foot pedals;  but I didn't let it bother me and took my time.  We were starting to get some response from the increased audience and "Mr Tambourine Man", up next, got a good round of applause.  The audience is relatively distant at this gig so its hard to hear how its going down.  Next I called for "Halfway to Paradise" thinking a slowey was worth a try.  We got going OK - Ian did a nice fill into the song.  Once underway, the big echo produced an intrusive slap back,  so I switched back to the 300mS echo mid song - this fitted the bands tempo better.  I could tell the audience were singing along,  but there were no slow dancers so I kept it short.  I was quite confident with "Runaround Sue" which I chose to sing in the high key of C we had moved to for Paul.  The audience seemed to like this and I took us into "All Shook Up".   As we finished Chris indicated we needed another few minutes.  My throat had held up well so far so I announced "Wonder of You".  It went well - we bigged it up towards the end i.e. lots of volume and strings.  Ian added a few tentative 'ah ah ah ahs' and I'm sure the audience was singing along as well.  I chickened out on the big Elvis ending as we eased to a close singing in the lower octave.  Despite some rough edges at the end (Chris hit the big finish Eb at the wrong point on the bass and my voice was fading at the same time) it went down remarkable well.  I put the muzak on and we took our break. 

Feedback from people in the break was positive and we took to the stage to open with "Apache" in a positive mood.  I thought we played this well - Ian puts in lots of the Shads features and on this night I concentrated on playing rather than walking.  We did get big round of applause as we finished.  I did my usual trick of asking the crowd who the Shads used to back.  'Harry Webb' came back one wag,  I indicated we would do one of his and Ian surprised me as he got underway with "Do You Wanna Dance".  The set list showed "Move It" so I had to change guitar and PA settings to fit in.  But we got through OK,  maybe a bit more ragged than we can do,  but it went down well enough. As we carried on with some rock n roll I could feel the voice getting croaky.  The two Creedance songs went well and got some dancing going.  We approached the end of the set with a good rendition of "Hot Love" which had fully populated the dance floor and earned a big round of applause.  I was going to take it into "East Anglia Girls" but couldn't feel my way into it.  Ian read my hesitation as time to stop and we stopped in good order without going up a tone for "East Anglia Girls".  Big decision now on how to close the set?  I found myself announcing "American Trilogy" saying we would need lots of sing-a-long as I had a sore throat.  We hadn't done this for quite a while and I was struggling to feel it right while at the same time favouring the voice which was now sounding hoarse.  Fortunately,  there was some sing-a-long going on in the crowd.  We got to the 'glory glory' phrase and I annoyingly mixed up chords and phrasing - not fatally though.  On the positive side we did a good transition to the flute sound and a very big end with lots of strings and drums.  Ian does a very powerful job! As we left we could see the hall was well over half full now.

We took our break and I nursed the voice with a pint of water before resuming with "Flingel Bunt".  Ian needs to listen to the beginning but once underway we did a good job.  I got us underway with "Dance the Night Away".  Quite a few came up to dance.  I'm still messing up the guitar playing the horn parts - nothing the crowd would notice but annoying to me as I fall back to the chords.  Its one of those things I need to play through a few time before the gig so the fingers do it on auto pilot.  We carried on into our long dancey song sequence and soon had the dance floor busy and quite a bit of sing-a-long going.  The only 'really hard on the voice' number in that sequence was "Pretty Woman" and it did sound strained,  but we soon moved into easier singing territory such as "Hi Ho".  They shouted for "The Twist" and we gave it to 'em - in my low key of G.   We did fit in one slow song "Rainin in my Heart" which brought up a couple of couples to dance.  After "Hippy Shakes" I brought in our "Mystery Train - Hound Dog" pairing to introduce the band. That went well - "Hound Dog" is easy to sing and the band does a strong dancey rhythm.  We eased down with "Mustang Sally".  I wanted to extend this with a solo to give the voice a break,  but Chris misread my signal and carried on into his 'all the ladies sing - ride sally ride' routine.  But as we came to the end Chris said we were close to midnight and it was time to wrap up.  We tore into "Johnny B Goode".  It was a great finisher and we got a good round of applause from the by now much thinner crowd. Having just done the band intro we passed on the band outro routine and just played it straight. We worked hard to deter any call for an encore as we quickly moved off the stage and headed to the storeroom to get changed.  People on the way out seemed happy with the band and Jackie the governess in charge said we'd done a very good job:  She said the audience had liked the music and the band sounded good;  and we did well to get them dancing 'cos they don't usually dance on these quiet weekends before the season gets going.  We were buoyed up by this 'cos I think the mood in the band was that we were struggling a bit with repertoire changes,  my vocal problems and the fact that the audience was fairly distant so we didn't get how well it was going down.

Pack and load in the rain was a chore but we finally hit the road just before 1am.  I was home for 2:30am after an unenjoyable drive in the sleety rain;   navigating the road works on the Norwich bypass was a pain.  The voice was well shattered when I woke up the next day though .....

ReTrio and Paul Kent play Littleport Ex Servicemans Club

I had returned from Malta in a healthier mind state and I was determined to try and make the current band line up work.  So I teed up a meeting with Paul to try and iron out the song issues before the scheduled band practice on the Thursday before the gig.  The meet with Paul went OK and we worked for about 3 hours visiting every song on his set list,  confirming the key where necessary and testing harmonies.  Some of the high harmony lines I would have done in my younger days were too much of a stretch at the mo' and given that we only had two voices to play with I chose to sing the close harmony under for some songs e.g. "Little Bit More" . In terms of new band material we worked up the Wet Wet Wet version of "Love is All Around" as a banker ballad for the last set.  Although I wasn't keen on it, Paul had confirmed he would be using his own PA and a Bose Compact for monitoring at the gig and I would continue to use the band PA as normal  - but we agreed to provide a feed from my Stagescape mixer and take a feed from his so we were all interconnected. I was well aware of the risks of over complexity but reckoned on keeping the interconnections at low levels to avoid feedback.  The other problem would be remembering all the good work we had put in on the songs,  but I hoped the practice scheduled for the Thursday would solidify most of it.

The practice went quite well musically and our try outs of the harmonies worked very well - so well that I was only using the harmoniser on couple of songs e.g. "Happy Together".  Unfortunately, the practice didn't go well personality wise with Paul seemingly using the session to score points against me for trying to organise things (I discounted paranoia in this assessment).   At the end I had very mixed feelings about whether I wanted to continue in the band with him and these feelings intensified as the gig approached. 

Come the day Jacqui offered to come to see the band.  She was intrigued as to what was bothering me, and the other band wives Bridget and Sharon were going so she wouldn't be on her own.  Sleeping on it I had decided it was too risky to interconnect PA's - I would set our PA up as normal and leave Paul to do his own thing with his own PA.  I followed Chris in convoy to the gig and we arrived at 6 pm to find parking spaces outside the club and Paul already there and loaded in.  We got our gear in and set up on the commodious (by most club standards) stage.  Paul set his PA up on the floor in front of the stage and was soon busy testing it out.  It did sound good and the fold back from the Bose compact angled into the band from my left was perfect - very clear and no hint of feedback.  I got our PA going and it sounded equally good in my opinion.  The hall itself has a slight pleasant reverb but no awkward low end resonances = good for the onstage band sound.  There is a lowish ceiling beam dividing the band from the audience that I thought might cause some trouble,  but all it did was cut down the volume a bit on the way to the audience - not a bad thing.  We had a run through a few numbers,  "Bye Bye Love - Hound Dog - Searchers" and it all sounded fine and Paul was relatively well behaved.  I ran the guys through a more professional Paul intro where Ian starts the Mystery Train riff going,  I announce him then same for Chris and myself then we all play the riff to a big stop - 'and its Pa--ul Ke--nt on vocals'!  Satisfied with that we took to the bar.  As I re-joined the women I noticed Paul was getting a bit of an interrogation from the ladies on his commitment.  After a beer we got changed and Chris gathered us up for a photo shoot on stage.  I suspected this would be a just an interim one no matter how well we processed it but we did our best.

Come 8:45 we took to the stage and opened up with the usual "FBI - Heartbeat".  The audience is a long way from the band but it seemed to go down well.  The on stage sound was fine.  Having not played for a few weeks and dealing with Paul's stuff for the last 10 days,  I found I was out of practice on guitar and struggling to remember song words for numbers I have done for years.  Also I couldn't quite see the set list on the floor and called the next few songs out of sequence (and even missed one out) so it was after "Act Naturally" I asked Ian to start the train riff to bring Paul on.  Actually that went OK.  It would have been more professional if Paul had come up when announced rather than at the beginning of the riff - but 'hey ho' he started "Hound Dog" well and did a good job of posing and mingling with the audience, so it was a good first outing.  The solo's went well - I have to watch Paul to see when he's going to call it:  it seems different every time!  He does do the Jordinaires 'aaahs' under the solos which is good,  but the ending remains uncertain.  I had run them through an ending similar to the record but we need an indication of this is the last verse from Paul to fix that.  He got a good reception and we carried on with "Blue Suede Shoes (still a bit fast) and Bye Bye Love" both going down well with an audience of about 40.  I thought we did a good version of the Everly's song.  I had shifted the key to A as per record and Paul's and my voice (doing the high line) blended well.  It was played at an easy pace and we had a few ladies dancing by this point.  Next I announced the Searchers medley.  I had shifted the keys in this to be all in A to suit Paul on lead lines.  We got underway with "Sugar and Spice" and it went OK,  but I sensed Paul hadn't done his homework on words.  I missed the drama of the key change to F as we transitioned into "Needles and Pins" and Paul still seemed uncertain on words and arrangement.  The change to "Walk in the Room" brought us back to more familiar territory and we did a tight finish.  Paul seems to expect me to do all the announcements which looks a bit odd out front,  best spin is initial nerves and he will interact better as we go.  Next up was "Happy Together" so I did our usual link into it and we started the riff.  A nice relaxed pace brought several dancers up and we played a very creditable cover of this with added harmoniser and strings filling it out in the choruses - it went down really well.  There was a bit of dithering to establish how much time we had left before we got underway with the next song "Can't Buy Me Love";  and Paul was behaving unprofessionally by barracking me rather than using the opportunity to engage the audience.  This slowed down decision making and made the delay worse.  Not that the ladies dancing were that bothered.  So after a 40 second delay we got going and played it well.  I still need to work on the solo which remains somewhat improvised but all in all a good pace and a song these audiences relate to.  Next was "All Shook Up".  Paul had insisted we liven this up and play it faster and,  as I predicted,  it was too fast for this crowd and the dancers dropped away.  We redeemed ourselves with a good finish on "Wonder of You" which he sang well and it had the big arrangement with strings and harmonies.   Overall a good first set despite the diva act on vocals.

 

We started set 2 with "Apache".  Ian does a good job on this and it got a good response.  We progressed on with me singing familiar material "Tambourine Man, Move It,  Summertime Blues and Sweet Caroline".  We had quite a few dancing and singing by the end of "Sweet Caroline" and I brought Paul on quickly to do "Daydream Believer".  He sang it well and we gave "Delilah" a go in Tom's key Gm.  For a first time outing I couldn't grumble - it went well but maybe the audience would find it easier to sing along in Em?  The rest of the set was fairly familiar.  When it was time to do a couple of ballads Paul did a good vocal on "A Little Bit More" which compensated for a messed up vocal on the bridge in "Rainin in My Heart" preceding it. After a few more dancey numbers we finished with "Mony Mony" - somewhat ragged in my opinion.

I started the 3rd set with a familiar run of numbers.  I was still suffering from lack of practice and found singing and playing some of these hard going.  Paul was due to come on to "Saw Her Standing There".  We got the riff going and I looked in vain for him.  He had missed his cue and had to be told to get off the phone and get going.  The next few numbers were tortuous for me.  We still had attitude problems,  but now he was bending down to fiddle with his vocal processor and adding what sounded like a harmoniser not receiving any key information.  Fortunately it wasn't too noticeable out front and we played on to a ragged end by our standards.  To be fair "Love is All Around" was an exception in this closing sequence -  he sang it well and kept off the FX box. 

We packed up without saying much. Paul was first to be ready to go and he made a point of saying goodbye to me with what I took to be sarcastic comment about my being the leader.   Strangely, the management were happy with the band and confirmed the re-booking in July.  As I drove home I continued to have very mixed feelings:  alternating between wanting to resign or work at taming Paul.  Jacqui urged me not to do anything hasty saying that the band had sounded good and the lack of slickness wasn't that noticeable out front.  Next day we got the unsurprising news Paul had resigned.  The mood between the three of us was now at a low ebb for different reasons and I half hoped it might result in a band split.  But come Tuesday Ian had found a potential singer from his contacts who he assured us wouldn't be a diva.  So we fell in line with that.  We have to play the next weekend as a trio which I will find demanding,  but hopefully we can get sorted after that.